The push for more realistic, “body
positive” images of girls has been
gaining momentum over the past year
and not just in toys. In 2014, barbie
sales plummeted, while a doll with an
average woman’s proportions gained
viral success; full-bodied models were
integrated into high-fashion campaigns
without fanfare; e-retailer modcloth
announced an anticipated doubling of
its sales after introducing plus sizes;
the single “all about that bass,” which
celebrates curvy bodies, became such
a commercial success that, no, you will
never get it out of your head; and Kim
Kardashian’s famously ample butt broke
the Internet.
Introduction | 5

A New
M odel

6

After decades of false starts,
maybe we are finally ready to move away
from unattainably slim ideals. When we
think of lingerie ads, winged Victoria’s
Secret Angels flutter through our minds.
But in November alone, three high-fashion
institutions displayed a fuller understanding
of feminine beauty. Seductively posed in a
rubber leotard, Candice Huffine debuted as
the first plus-size model to be featured in
Pirelli’s prestigious calendar in December. A
Vogue online gallery featuring sexy lingerie
starred women with F- rather than B-cup
sizes. “Going into this, we assumed that
the beautiful, delicate, lacy bras that we all
prefer would only be available in the smaller
cup sizes, but we were thrilled to find a real
wealth of options for a huge variety of body
shapes,” editor Jorden Bickham tells TIME
in an email.
A New Model | 7

8

9

C

alvin Klein used Myla

TIME. “It’s just so old. Saying, ‘Oh she’s

Dalbesio in its “Perfectly

plus-size, yippee!’ and making a big deal

Fit” underwear campaign.

of that.”

Dalbesio, a size 10, told Elle, “It’s
not like [Calvin Klein] released this

There was certainly fanfare when size-

campaign and were like ‘Whoa,

22 model Tess Holliday was signed to

look, there’s this plus-size girl in our

MiLK Model Management last week —

campaign.’ They released me in this

making her the first model of her size to

campaign with everyone else; there’s no

ever be represented by a major agency.

distinction. It’s not a separate section

“It was unheard of, I never even tried to

for plus-size girls.” (This interview incited

get with an agency,” Holliday, 29, tells

misappropriated backlash against CK

TIME. “One of my friends even said,

when the Twitterverse thought Dalbesio

‘Isn’t it crazy that you’re in the news

was incorrectly cast under the “plus size”

for being the biggest plus-size model

category — she wasn’t.)

when you’re the true size of a plus-size
woman?’” Holliday says the average

10

While the Internet reacted to the

plus-size model is between size 8 and

seamless integration of fuller-bodied

10; the average plus-size woman is

models into these campaigns, the

bigger. “There has always been an issue

models were presented by designers

with [designers] using smaller plus-size

without fanfare. “There were no big

models, and if they wanted one who

tambourines, no big calling out of the

was a little bit bigger or curvier, they

size thing,” Emme, widely regarded as

would pad her because they said they

the first plus-size supermodel (even

couldn’t find good quality models above

though she eschews the moniker), tells

a size 16.”

If they want me, then theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll

PAY FOR IT.
-TESS HOLIDAY

A New Model |11

“There’s an

EVOLUTION

on both sides
of the spectrum.”
-Conor Kennedy
Muse Model Management
President

arbie has been a mainstay in most children’s lives since the
late ’50s. According to Time magazine’s latest cover story, the
doll does, “$1 billion in sales across more than 150 countries
annually, and 92% of American girls ages 3 to 12 have owned a
Barbie.” But while her look has changed subtly to suit the current
fashions, she’s always more or less been the same blonde, Californian babe since
the day we first met her. That is, until now.

Mattel has given Barbie a much-needed 21st century makeover as part of its
#TheDollEvolves campaign, releasing three new body shapes for their best-selling
toy. In a direct response to the backlash she’s received over the years because of
the unrealistic body standards she promotes, Barbie will now be available in tall,
curvy and petite sizes which will help the doll more accurately portray a greater
diversity of women of all body shapes and sizes. The new body positive spectrum of
dolls is also partially due to the company’s declining sales, which according to Time,
“in 2012, Barbie global sales dropped 3%. They dropped another 6% in 2013 and
16% in 2014.”

New trends in toy sales serve as fiscal evidence that children also want natural,
realistic beauty — rather than unattainable ideals. Barbie, who has seen her share
of criticism for being an anatomically impossible mutant, is losing her clout among
girls — and their parents. As people stopped buying Barbies, they crowd-funded an
alternative to the tune of $500,000.

The Doll Evolves |19

Touted as the “normal Barbie,” Lammily dolls are built to the
measurements of an average woman, based on Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention data. “This is the doll people have
been waiting for,” Nickolay Lamm told TIME when he prepared
to ship tens of thousands of dolls to eager backers before the
holidays. “She looks like a regular girl going to school,” a secondgrader said when she was presented with a Lammily doll. “She’s
not like other dolls,” said another.

One of the reasons that Lamm was able turn the Lammily doll
from a concept to an actual product was because his original
sketches of the “normal Barbie” — meant to simply be an art
project — went viral. Its traction online indicated to Lamm how
thirsty people were to celebrate the beauty of reality.

20

” She
looks
real. ”
The Doll Evolves |21

Sk in ny is
Sk in Deep

22

Skinny is Skin Deep |23

24

...why are there no

CURVY

MODELS
in beauty?
“Beauty brand work is nonexistent,” according to Philomena Kwao, a plus size
model originally from London. “I’ve been lucky enough to do a few editorials in the
U.K., but I’ve never even been on a casting for mainstream commercial work. When
I try to understand it, I think people are scared to try something new. It’s like, ‘I have
a formula, why change it?’” There’s no size requirement to fit a lipstick, so why are
there no curvy models lin beauty?

Skinny is Skin Deep |25

“Beauty
is about
imagining
where you
may be in
the future.”

-Brooke Erin Duffy

26

One view says the commodification

and thin. This fashionable ideal was

of beauty is to blame. Ms. Kwao,

born out of the classism and racism of

originally from London, is a model who

the 1920s, she says, when American

notices “plus-size” models being left

consumer culture and the modeling

out of the beauty industry. She said,

industry burgeoned simultaneously.

“When I try to understand it, I think

While some elements of that ideal

people are scared to try something

shifted over time, the body standard

new. “Beauty is about imagining

remains.

where you may be in the future,”
said Brooke Erin Duffy, an assistant

“People often cite the 1950s as a time

professor at Cornell University who

when curviness was in, but that’s not

specializes in feminist media studies

entirely true,” said Elizabeth Wissinger,

and consumer culture. “Imagining

author of “This Year’s Model” and a

yourself looking like a celebrity or

professor of fashion studies at the

model. That promise of future reward

City University of New York’s Graduate

creates need.”

Center. “Yes, curvy bodies were popular,
but the people had those achievable,

Dr. Duffy points out that this idealized,

accessible physiques, represented

aspirational woman will usually look

by movie stars like Marilyn Monroe.

one particular way: she has patrician

Fashion was still very separate and

features, she is tall, typically white,

models were thin.”

Skinny is Skin Deep |27

Plump
Prof it

28

A

ccording to Anthony

how delusional we are about what the

Higgins, the director at

majority of women’s bodies look like.

MSA Models, “catalogs

Clothing makers are finally beginning

will use a size 8 because they think

to understand that if they increase

size 14 and 16 will relate to that

their offerings — and we’re talking

person and size 4 and size 6 will

fashionable offerings rather than an

relate to that person. They do not

increased muumuu selection — in the

use size 18 as much as they should

“plus size” category, it will be beneficial

for print, though size 18 makes the

to their bottom line. With the “average”

most money.” The pathetic truth

American woman wearing a size 14,

is plus-sized models’ bodies are

that’s 100 million potential customers.

headed in the opposite direction

“It’s a huge market and it’s totally

of actual plus-size women’s bodies.

underserved,” ModCloth co-founder
Susan Gregg Koger told CNBC. When

According to the CDC, the average

Koger decided to expand the e-retailer’s

American woman is a size 14, and

plus-size division, she reached out

yet the dominant sizes in the industry

to 1,500 vendors for help — and only

are 0, 2, and 4. At size 8, the plus-

35 responded. But a year into the

size models are considerably smaller

expansion, with 100 vendors on board,

than the average American women,

Koger told Business Insider that she

and that is incredibly indicative of

expected sales to double in 2014.

Plump Profit |29

According to the market-research firm NPD
Group, plus-size-clothing sales increased 5%
last year to $17.5 billion. E-retailers are taking
advantage of this rise. In December, plus-size
fashion e-retailer ELOQUII raised $6 million
in Series A funding. But brick-and-mortar
retailers still have room for improvement.
But the quality must improve as well because,
at the moment, full-bodied women are
searching for — but often not finding —
fashionable outfits that go up to their size.
Stylist Sal Perez explained the difficulties in
trying to dress Rebel Wilson for her role in
Pitch Perfect 2 to the New York Times. “I am
horrified by some of the clothes I find in the
stores,” he said. “I don’t know anyone who
enjoys wearing polyester.”
30

Plump Profit |31

B eauty
Shif t

32

While #thinspiration and unhealthy body

Change.org petitions when they find out

ideals that promote eating disorders or

that Old Navy charges more money for

worse certainly exist on social networks,

items that come in plus sizes. (The retailer

an easily outraged Twitterverse is quick

didn’t fully capitulate, but it did change

to call companies out for promoting

plus-size policies.)

body-negative ideology.
Holliday, who started the viral Instagram
People will no longer stand for Victoria’s